This award supports development of a novel microscope that overcomes present limitations of temporal resolution during fast functional imaging of living tissues. The instrument will employ an inertia-free three dimensional scanning scheme, recently invented in the principal investigator's lab, that builds on two established techniques - Fast Acousto-Optic Laser Scanning and Multiphoton Microscopy. Critical to this has been the PI's development of a strategy to compensate for the dispersion of ultra-fast laser pulses when steered with acousto-optic deflectors. The instrument will allow researchers to interactively select sites-of-interest to perform multi-site functional imaging at frame rates of more than 1,000 per second. The microscope is expected to make possible the study of sensory information at cellular and subcellular level in intact brain and in excitable, non-neuronal tissue, such as heart, smooth and skeletal muscle, and imaging of other light-scattering biological preparations. The project will provide research training for number of graduate and undergraduate students in Engineering and Biology who will participate in design and construction of the instrument. In addition, portions of the theoretical work that provides the basis for the instrument will be incorporated in an imaging course taught by the investigator.
